The Italians

As changing economic and political
conditions effected southern and eastern Europe more and more, people from
those regions made the decision to emigrate to the United States. One of the
largest of these “new immigrant” groups was the Italians, many
of whom came to work in the coal mines scattered across southern and central
Iowa. Italians began to arrive around the year 1900 and became the second
largest of the southern and eastern European groups to settle in the United
States behind the Russians.

Some Stayed, Others Returned,
More Came

Many of these immigrants did not
intend to stay in Iowa, rather they planned to work in the mines until they
had enough money to return home and buy land, businesses and a better life
in their home land. While some Italians did return to Italy, others returned
and then decided to come back to America. Others simply remained here.

Since the immigrants had mainly
been farmers in Italy, they arrived in Iowa with few skills other than farming
and without the money to buy land of their own. As a result, they often had
to pick the one industry that was open to them, coal mining. Because of poverty,
Italian families tended to come in waves as money was available. In many cases,
a man would come over first. He worked hard and sent funds home to pay for
another relative to emigrate and so on until the entire family was together
in America. Italian immigrant communities formed in some of Iowa’s larger
cities, particularly in Des Moines.

Not Always Welcome

At the turn of the 20th century
the United States government tried to limit further immigration from southern
and eastern Europe by requiring literacy tests and physical exams. Once in
the United States Italian immigrants were looked down upon by their northern
European Protestant neighbors because they were Catholic and because they
often worked in coal mines. Some notable rural Italian communities were at
Granger and Lovilla. When the coal mines closed, many of the Italian workers
moved to cities, particularly Des Moines.